he was the first openly gay member of congress, and recently married his longtime partner. before that, in the 1980s, his career was marred by scandal involving his relationship with a male prostitute. but frank weathered that and went on to win re-election by wide margins. "newshour" economics correspondent paul solman sat down with him last week. >> reporter: congressman frank, welcome. why congress? what did you hope to accomplish when you came here first? >> to make this a fairer country. i'd always been interested in politics. i assumed for a variety of-- well, for two reasons-- being jewish and being gay back in the late '50s, early '60s, i'd never be elected or anything, but i would participate as an activist. and it's to make it fairer. fairness in the sense of people not going hungry or being deprived through no fault of their own, or even if there was their fault, but not letting people sink to that level of misery, ending discrimination, not interfering with people's personal freedom. and then when the congressional seat opened up, it was a natural forum to kind